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Page 1

[CHAPTER 15]
INSURRECTION, ABOLITION, AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
[Page 1]
In antebellum Louisiana slave escapes were of daily occurrence; suicides of slaves preferring death to servitude were not entirely unknown; and it was not uncommon to hear of slaves beating their masters and overseers. The more positive forms of slave dissatisfaction, however, usually found expression in escapes, poison plots, arson, and insurrections.
As has already been shown in previous chapters, the desire for freedom of the African slaves manifested itself in their resistance to the raids of the slave catchers who made forays into the African interior, and this resistance to slavery frequently found expression in the slave ships that plied the Middle Passage from Africa to America. On these ships the slaves grasped every opportunity to plot rebellion, and very often, when they landed in the Americas, their rebellious spirits were still unbroken. First in the West Indies, and later in the American cotton, sugar, and tobacco plantations, the slaves’ unquenchable desire for freedom gave birth to many plots and uprisings. These conditions were so prevalent that the following statement made by Robert Y. Hayne after the Nat Turner Rebellion in South Carolina, could have been equally applicable to affairs in Louisiana:
A state of military preparation must always be with us a state of perfect domestic security. A period of profound peace and consequent apathy may expose us to the dangers of domestic insurrection.1

The unpublished manuscript "The Negro in Louisiana" is a work begun by the Dillard (University) Project in 1942, an arm of the WPA's Federal Writer's Project. After the dissolution of the unit, Marcus Christian maintained and edited the document in hopes of eventual publication. It is reproduced here as an annotated transcript, with original typos, chapters, and paginations preserved.

[CHAPTER 15]
INSURRECTION, ABOLITION, AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
[Page 1]
In antebellum Louisiana slave escapes were of daily occurrence; suicides of slaves preferring death to servitude were not entirely unknown; and it was not uncommon to hear of slaves beating their masters and overseers. The more positive forms of slave dissatisfaction, however, usually found expression in escapes, poison plots, arson, and insurrections.
As has already been shown in previous chapters, the desire for freedom of the African slaves manifested itself in their resistance to the raids of the slave catchers who made forays into the African interior, and this resistance to slavery frequently found expression in the slave ships that plied the Middle Passage from Africa to America. On these ships the slaves grasped every opportunity to plot rebellion, and very often, when they landed in the Americas, their rebellious spirits were still unbroken. First in the West Indies, and later in the American cotton, sugar, and tobacco plantations, the slaves’ unquenchable desire for freedom gave birth to many plots and uprisings. These conditions were so prevalent that the following statement made by Robert Y. Hayne after the Nat Turner Rebellion in South Carolina, could have been equally applicable to affairs in Louisiana:
A state of military preparation must always be with us a state of perfect domestic security. A period of profound peace and consequent apathy may expose us to the dangers of domestic insurrection.1